# I Run Claude Code on $0/Month: A Practical Guide to Free LLM APIs

> Source: <https://dev.to/fastoolster/i-run-claude-code-on-0month-a-practical-guide-to-free-llm-apis-2o8g>
> Published: 2026-10-05 10:45:28+00:00

AI coding assistants are incredible — until the API bill arrives. If you've ever watched your Claude Code or Cursor usage tick upward and wondered whether there's a cheaper way, this guide is for you.

The good news: in 2026, the free tier landscape for LLM APIs is genuinely good. Not "free trial for 7 days" good — permanently free, no credit card required, production-usable models. The bad news: the information is scattered across dozens of provider docs, and free tiers change constantly.

Here's the practical setup I actually use.

Not all free tiers are equal. These are the ones with permanent free tiers, no credit card required:

| Provider | Standout model | Why it's good | 
|---|---|---|
| **Google AI Studio** | Gemini 2.5 Flash (1M context, multimodal) | Most capable free tier, 500 req/day | 
| **Groq** | Llama 3.3 70B, gpt-oss-120b | Fastest inference, ultra-low latency | 
| **NVIDIA NIM** | 100+ open models (DeepSeek R1/V3, Llama) | Huge selection, one API key | 
| **OpenRouter** | 35+ free models | Single key, single endpoint for everything | 
| **Cerebras** | Llama 3.3 70B | Extremely fast | 
| **Mistral** | Mistral Small/Medium | ~1B tokens/month free | 

The full comparison — rate limits, context windows, credit card requirements — is maintained at [freellm.net](https://freellm.net), a directory of 489 free models across 30 providers. I use it as my reference because free tiers change often and static lists go stale fast.

Pick one provider to start. My recommendation for coding: **Google AI Studio** (best model quality) or **Groq** (best speed).

That's it. You now have a working LLM API key that costs $0.

Claude Code reads two environment variables to override its backend:

```
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai"
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="your-google-ai-studio-key"
```

(For Groq: `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.groq.com/openai/v1"`.)

Then just run `claude` as normal. It will route through the free provider instead of Anthropic's API.

For **Cursor**: Settings → Models → Add Model, paste the base URL and key.

For **Codex CLI**: set `OPENAI_BASE_URL` + `OPENAI_API_KEY`.

Ready-to-copy snippets for every provider/model combination are at [freellm.net/config](https://freellm.net/config/) — pick your tool, pick your model, paste.

Before wiring a key into your daily workflow, test it. The [freellm.net playground](https://freellm.net/playground/) lets you paste a key and chat with any model right in the browser — no install, and your key goes directly to the provider, never stored on their servers.

Free tiers have limits, and you should know them upfront:

$0/month. I do the bulk of my AI-assisted coding on Gemini 2.5 Flash via Google AI Studio's free tier, and fall back to Groq when I need speed. When I hit a rate limit (rare), I switch providers — which takes 30 seconds since it's just env vars.

If you're a student, indie hacker, or just cost-conscious, there's no reason to pay for API access while these tiers exist. The setup takes less time than reading this article did.

*Reference: [freellm.net](https://freellm.net) — 489 free LLM APIs from 30 providers, with rate limits, context windows, and one-click configs for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.*